World Population Clock 6,709,117,382
As of 17:21 GMT (EST+5) Jul 10, 2008

Tomorrow, July 11, 2008, is World Population Day.  Last year the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) put the spotlight on urbanization, noting that 2008 would be the first year in which half the world's population lives in an urban setting.  This year’s theme, as announced by UNFPA, is “Family Planning: It’s a Right; Let’s Make it Real.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon noted in a public statement released earlier this week that world leaders proclaimed more than 40 years ago that “individuals have a basic right to determine freely and responsibly the number and timing of their children.”  And although Millennium Development Goal 5 (improving maternal health) affirms this, Ban warned that the goal of providing family planning services to those who want them “shows the least progress to date.”  Ban’s public statement noted that:

The rate of death for women as they give birth remains the starkest indicator of the disparity between rich and poor, both within and among countries. We already know what needs to be done to meet the basic health needs of women throughout their life cycle, especially during the reproductive years, pregnancy and childbirth. There are three basic interventions necessary to improve maternal health: skilled attendance at the time of birth, facilities to provide emergency obstetric care and family planning.

Family planning is a fundamental component of reproductive health as it allows for determining the spacing of pregnancies. Studies show that family planning has immediate benefits for the lives and health of mothers and their infants. Ensuring basic access to family planning could reduce maternal deaths by a third and child deaths by as much as 20 per cent.

And yet the benefits of family planning remain out of reach for many, especially for those who often have the hardest time getting the information and services they need to plan their families, such as the poor, marginalized populations and young people. Demand will only increase, as more than one billion people ages 15-24 enter their reproductive years.

Ban called on donor nations to honor the commitments made at the 1994 Cairo Conference so that the maternal health goals of MDG 5 can be achieved by 2015.  The demand for contraceptives, however, is clearly growing. 

The “Family Planning Worldwide 2008 Data Sheet,” released earlier this year by the Population Reference Bureau showed the broad scope of the challenge.  In releasing the 2008 data sheet, PRB reported that:

In nearly all developing countries, the number of women of reproductive age (ages 15-49) will grow between 2005 and 2015 because of the large numbers of young people in these countries.  In addition, the demand for contraceptives is projected to grow due to couple’s desire for smaller families.  As a result, the total cost of contraceptives supplies to meet couple’s needs is projected to rise by nearly 50 percent (in today’s U.S. dollars) in countries such as Tanzania and Nepal.  The costs are certain to grow throughout the developing world, placing pressure on governments to increase their family planning budgets, raise additional donor funds, obtain better prices for commodities, and/or shift a greater share of costs to users.

Shifting costs to users, however, could force many couples to make do without modern methods of contraception. With grain and other food prices soaring to record levels in 2008, many of the world’s poorest are struggling just to feed themselves.  With an estimated 100 million people being driven deeper into poverty by the recent rise in food prices, many low-income families will not be able to pay for family planning services. As PRB noted in its report earlier this year:

Nearly everywhere, wealthier women are more likely to use modern contraceptives than poorer women.  The disparities in use between rich and poor are most pronounced in countries with low contraceptive use overall, such as in Uganda.  In countries such as Honduras, contraceptive use overall may rise, but the poor still lag behind.  The gap usually starts to close only when contraceptive use becomes widely available, such as in Colombia.